


Bucky Barnes, Cat Savior

by calmena



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fluff, Just Add Kittens, M/M, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-13
Updated: 2019-01-13
Packaged: 2019-10-09 15:17:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17409284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calmena/pseuds/calmena
Summary: Wherein Bucky finds two abandoned kittens and decides to take them back to Avengers Tower with him, without telling Tony. And then everything gets a bit out of control.





	Bucky Barnes, Cat Savior

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Flight_Of_Icarus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flight_Of_Icarus/gifts).



> Ica is the one who came up with the original idea for this, I can't take any credit for that. I read the prompt and went, "I need it." So I wrote it. Further thanks go to earthelf for betaing this story. And now onwards, to the cats.

It was raining and gloomy and cold.

Grumbling under his breath, trying to ignore the water seeping through his shoes and soaking his socks at the toes, Bucky did his best not to get skewered by someone's umbrella on his way back to the tower. He'd only wanted to take a short walk but somehow managed to get lost in thought. By the time he'd noticed how clouded over the sky had become and started to turn back, it had been too late to avoid the rain completely.

Continuing to mutter curses, he turned down an alley to avoid the masses of people for a few seconds and take a shortcut in an aim to get into dry clothes just a little sooner. It was only his quick reaction that kept him from falling over a soggy cardboard box that had been set down on the ground just a little too far away from the dumpster.

It was, Bucky decided, a hazard for people walking through the alley. Pulling a face, he grabbed the box, intent on throwing it in the dumpster where it wouldn't end up possibly tripping up some random passerby who was not the Winter Soldier when he screeched to a halt because the _weight was off_.

An empty box, even one that was soaked through, should have barely registered as a weight. However, there was a definite heft to it that he hadn't expected.

Bucky frowned and used one hand to open the box where the flaps had fallen down to close it, peering in. He found himself faced with two kittens, blinking sleepily. One of them raised their head, mewing softly and trying to get to its feet and, instead, falling over when Bucky unintentionally jostled the box just the smallest bit.

Another mew, and if it had been possible, Bucky would've said the kitten was sending him a murderous look, even as the other one had already closed their eyes once more with only a tiny, plaintive sound.

And really, that's all there was to it.

He settled the box more securely in his arms and continued on to the tower.

 

* * *

 

"Hey, Buck!" Steve was in the kitchen, probably cooking, going by the smell.

There was some rustling in the box as the kittens seemed to connect said smells to the fact that there was food, and he carefully set the carton down onto the carpet in front of the couch, scooping out one kitten after the other.

They wobbled a bit, huddled together, and scanned the room for threats before they slowly started sniffing the furniture, as Bucky just sat still and watched, even as his hands itched to reach out and pet their soft fur.

They were adorable, he decided, and he was keeping them.

One of them, a dark grey tabby, sneezed so violently it almost lost its footing, wobbling against the couch and making a vaguely grumbly mew as it did so. He only just managed to stifle a reflexive coo, not wanting to startle the kittens to the point where they would stop their exploring.

Of course, then Steve had to destroy the moment, as he stepped through the kitchen door. "Are those cats?"

In a second, both of the kittens were gone. Bucky had been watching them and he _still_ almost managed to miss how they squeezed underneath the couch. Later, he'd absolutely refuse to admit that he pouted right then, as he sent Steve a small glare.

Steve made an appropriately apologetic expression that really didn't help since the kittens were still under the couch, and Bucky made sure to glare at him for just a few seconds longer, to make sure that he understood that Bucky was very appropriately angry at him.

He did make up for it a bit when he brought Bucky some little pieces of chicken to try and coax the kittens out with. It might have ended with Bucky getting his fingers gnawed on a tiny little bit, but by that point, he didn't even mind that anymore.

Especially not when the kittens ended up sleepily curling up on his lap when he'd finished feeding them the last few pieces of chicken, purring quietly, nudging against his fingertips as he carefully trailed them over their soft fur.

Steve sat down on the floor next to him, leaning back against the couch.

"So, cats?" he asked again, carefully lowering his voice to avoid disturbing them. His eyes were carefully on the two kittens, though there was a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

Bucky rolled his eyes but didn't stop petting the kittens' heads.

"Yes," he said just as quietly. "Found them in an alley. I couldn't just _leave_ them there."

Steve visibly softened and reached out until the tip of his forefinger just barely brushed against the fur of the grey tabby. The kitten didn't even react to the touch except to yawn widely, showing off tiny teeth that didn't look threatening at all and caused an urge to protect to roar to life in Bucky.

"I don't know if Tony allows animals," Steve said, slowly. He didn't even seem to have to ask if Bucky was going to keep them, he just _knew_.

"I'll hide them," Bucky shrugged. "Only until I figure out if he does. If he doesn't, I'll figure something else out." He didn't quite know what that 'something else' would be, but he hoped that Tony would be fine with cats in his building. Really, it was such a big building, he wouldn't even have to notice.

Steve made a skeptical sound but didn't add anything further.

They kept sitting on the floor, petting the kittens curled up in Bucky's lap, for a long time.

 

* * *

 

Three days later, Bucky still hadn't figured out how to ask Tony about the kittens without making it obvious that his interest was very much of a personal nature and not at all theoretical. So while that part was very much still an ongoing problem, Bucky had decided to focus on a different aspect of the situation that he had yet to figure out - this being, getting some actual cat supplies.

Normally, he'd have asked JARVIS to order them for him, saving himself the trip to the next store, but the fact that he was trying not to shout the fact that he was hiding kittens to the world made the whole thing a little difficult. Bucky was certain that someone would notice if a big delivery of pet supplies decided to show up for someone living in the tower.

So here he was, overwhelmed by the selection of cat food on offer, and vaguely disturbed by how expensive some of it was. He'd already picked up a litter box and some cat litter, decided that it would only make sense to have some cat toys and treats on hand, and now here he was, trying to figure out which brand of cat food to pick, and how much of it.

In the end, he just chose something that said it was specifically for kittens and probably bought way too much.

He was already on the way out of the store when he noticed the pet pictures on the pinboard next to one of the checkout counters and made a detour.

Two hours later he was the owner of a six-year-old, orange cat named Apricat whose owner wasn't able to take care of her anymore.

 

* * *

 

"Did you-- is that another cat?"

Bucky continued to pet Apricat, who'd made her home on his lap, while the two kittens crawled around on the back of the couch behind him, sticking their heads over his shoulders and meowing when they heard Steve speak.

Bucky looked at Steve, expressionless except for how he widened his eyes just a little for effect. "No?"

There were a few seconds in which one of the kittens decided to lay down so its head was cradled in the space between Bucky's neck and shoulder, while the other one jumped down and started to nudge at his metal hand.

Then a sigh.

"You really have to talk to Tony," said Steve, with that signature "disappointed in you" note, not that it ever did much to reign in Bucky. Neither did the fact that Steve was right.

Instead, Bucky carefully scooped up the kitten that had started pawing at his hand when he hadn't immediately started petting upon request, and held it in front of Steve's face.

"I named her Picatso for you."

"Dammit, Bucky."

 

* * *

 

Caring for three cats wasn't much different than caring for two, really. He did, however, decide that he needed another litter box, more cat litter, and food that wasn't specifically for kittens. He would also have to look into finding a vet, for Picatso and Tabbytha especially so, though he wouldn't mind getting Apricat checked over, either.

It turned out that the number of vets in New York City was even more overwhelming than the variety of cat food at the pet store. Bucky spent a few seconds blankly staring at the dots on google maps before he decided that he would not potentially harm his cats by choosing a vet that wasn't the absolute best there was. Which really left only one possible avenue.

"JARVIS?"

_"Yes, Sergeant Barnes?"_

"Could you--" he hesitated for a second before he ultimately decided that the cats' well-being was too important not to ask JARVIS for help in this, "Could you find a vet for me? The best, if you can."

There was a second of silence, during which Bucky felt increasingly nervous that JARVIS would refuse and outright tell him that he wouldn't be able to keep the cats in the tower, instead. In the space of that one, single second, Bucky almost managed to convince himself to pack up his cats right then and there and try to find a place that would take the four of them.

Then there was a crackling sound that Bucky could not interpret.

_"Of course, Sergeant Barnes. I have taken the liberty to send contact information and address to your phone."_

Bucky couldn't help but sigh in relief, shoulders sagging down from where he'd unconsciously pulled them back, a tension he hadn't been aware of leaving his body.

"Thanks, JARVIS. And could you--" Again, he hesitated. "Could you not tell Tony about this, yet? I want to speak about it with him, myself."

Another short moment of silence, another crackling sound, and Bucky wondered if this was JARVIS' version of a sigh.

 _"I am not in the habit of disclosing the goings-on of other inhabitants in the tower to Sir,"_ JARVIS finally said.

Bucky closed his eyes in relief, only to abruptly reopen them when JARVIS continued.

_"However, I do suggest speaking to Sir about this soon. I do not believe his reaction would be a negative one."_

"Thanks, Jarvis. I'll do that." Bucky did his best to keep the doubt out of his voice. He couldn't help but think that he'd never seen any indication that Tony would ever want a pet.

Of course, he told himself then, these cats would not be Tony's, except for the fact that they were in his building. They still belonged to Bucky, and telling Tony about them didn't mean Bucky expected him to be involved in their care at all.

Bucky pointedly ignored the part of him that instantly imagined Tony with a kitten cradled close to his chest and went warm and soft.

 

* * *

 

Bucky did not end up speaking to Tony about the cats that day. Or the next. In fact, by the time a week had gone by, Steve had upped his "disappointed in you" stare into a " _really_ disappointed in you" one. Seeing as Bucky had spent not one, but two team dinners sitting opposite Tony with a feeling of guilt in his stomach and yet mentioning not one word about the cats, Bucky understood why.

It simply didn't help him actually make the jump and _tell_ Tony, though.

So this left Bucky where he currently was, cats winding around his ankles in figure-eights as he tried to make his way from the kitchen to the breakfast table without spilling his coffee. It was surprisingly difficult, especially since Tabbytha kept trying to play with his toes even as he was walking, chasing after his foot as if it was one of her fifteen toys.

Steve had left his newspaper on the table, so Bucky started to absently flip through it as he started on his omelet. He probably paid more attention to Picatso, who had by that point started to make as if he was going to jump onto the table than he did to the news, but his focus shifted very quickly when he noticed the half-page that was taken up by pictures of cats of varying ages.

"Do not," he told himself, even as he started reading the small blurb at the top of the page, of how the animal shelter was running out of room for the cats, and their plea for prospective pet owners to please look into getting animals from shelters.

Bucky looked down at where Tabbytha was gnawing on his toe, then at the table where Picatso had decided to help himself to Bucky's breakfast while the focus had been off of him, and finally at Apricat, lying on his lap where she'd jumped as soon as he'd sat down at the table.

Then he looked at the newspaper. And sighed.

 

* * *

 

Bucky had a cat-carrier in each hand and was wondering whether he should be questioning his life choices. It wasn't that he'd intended to pick up two more pets. It had just… happened.

One of the cats yowled in protest when he set the carrier down to be able to press the elevator button without jostling her, and then again when he picked the carrier back up. The other cat was probably still gnawing at the little metal gate of his own cat carrier.

Bucky wasn't going to look.

He also definitely didn't look at Steve, who was sitting on the couch in the living room and drawing. Bucky could feel the judgment, even if Steve hadn't yet said a word. It didn't stop him from setting down the carriers - prompting more furious yowls - and letting out the cats, though.

"Bucky--"

"I know," Bucky interrupted before Steve could work himself up to more. "I'll talk to Tony about the cats."

The silence that followed still had a distinctly judging quality to it, but when Bucky actually glanced Steve's way, he had to fight to keep down the smirk that wanted to escape.

In a very fitting turn of events, Picatso had made his place half on the backrest of the couch and half on Steve's shoulder, sleeping curled up in a tight ball. It was utterly adorable, and the way Steve was carefully not moving even if it hindered him in his drawing told him that Steve thought so, too.

One of the new cats had finally made her way out of her carrier and chose that moment to sink her claws into Bucky's calf. When Bucky turned to look down at her with a frown, the cat was cleaning herself primly.

"I'm going to name that one Captain Americat," he said, jokingly but not really. "She's trying to pick a fight with someone both stronger and taller than her, that feels like someone I know." The amusement he felt only increased when he heard Steve's offended yelp, and he held out a finger to let the cat chase it around in circles.

"Yes," he decided, "Captain Americat seems right."

Steve made a protesting sound, but another short look at him confirmed that he was more amused than affronted. Captain Americat it was, then.

He gently booped the newly named Captain Americat's nose, chuckling when she froze and looked at him with utter betrayal and ran off to investigate Steve's toes instead. It only took a few seconds before Picatso perked up from where he'd been sleeping, immediately focusing on the new arrival and readying himself to pounce, no doubt about to upend all of Steve's drawing utensils that he'd laid out on the couch beside himself.

On that note… Bucky frowned and turned around, finding the second cat carrier empty and the cat that it had contained gone.

"Did you see where that one went?" he asked Steve, looking around the room and crouching down next to the couch when that didn't produce any results. The cat hadn't hidden there, either, and Steve was no help when he just shook his head.

"JARVIS? Did you see where the cat from that carrier went off to?" Bucky asked finally, shaking his head at the thought that he'd managed to lose one of his new cats in the span of _minutes_.

_"I believe he took the elevator to the common floor, Sergeant Barnes."_

For a second, Bucky was speechless. Steve was making choked, aborted laughing sounds behind him, which definitely didn't help matters.

It only took that one moment for Bucky to jump into movement, though, ignoring the elevator altogether and going for the stairs instead.

"How did he even get into the elevator? How did the elevator even start to move?" he asked frantically, for once hoping that Tony was either out of the tower or in his lab and definitely not on the common floor.

This was not how he'd wanted to bring up the topic of cats with Tony. Granted, he hadn't actually had a plan yet, but if he'd had, this would not be it.

 _"It must have been a glitch,"_ JARVIS said primly, and Bucky would have snorted if he hadn't been so frantic right then.

Even he knew that JARVIS didn't _glitch_ , that was an utter lie, and when he had the cat back on his floor he was going to try and ask JARVIS what he was trying to do - though whether he'd get answers was anyone's guess. He'd try, at least.

But first, the cat.

Bucky almost fell into the room the way he burst through the door, and he was probably lucky nobody was in the living area right then, or he'd have never heard the end of it. As it was, he immediately started scanning the room in search of the cat - only to find him sitting in the absolute middle of the biggest couch on this floor, cleaning himself with what Bucky was pretty sure was a self-satisfied look in his eyes.

"You're a little monster," Bucky muttered, but couldn't keep the fondness out of his tone even then. Now that he had eyes on the cat and knew that his fears had been unfounded, the whole thing seemed less bad. He was still wondering what JARVIS had been playing at with the elevator, but it all didn't seem so pressing anymore now.

The cat let himself be lifted without a fuss, even butting his head against Bucky's chest when he cradled him close.

Bucky shook his head in helpless affection and turned back towards the elevator.

He was almost there, too, when he heard the footsteps coming into the room and he hadn't even lifted his hand to press the door open button - and why was JARVIS not opening the doors unprompted when it was Bucky instead of a cat of all beings? - when he was spotted.

"Winter Wonderland!" Tony sounded as if they hadn't seen each other in weeks, instead of just at the team dinner the day before yesterday. The delight in his voice warmed Bucky down to the bottom of his very soul, and he sent a warning glance down at the cat that had started to struggle in his hold as soon as he had heard that there was another human in the room.

Because he couldn't really stay with his back to Tony while he was speaking with him, he did his best to keep the cat out of sight as he was turning. He ended up awkwardly holding him behind his back, a task made all the more difficult by the fact that he had now started to struggle in earnest, as Bucky tried to smile as if nothing was wrong.

Tony didn't even bother acting as if he believed it, a small wrinkle between his brows as he squinted at Bucky quizzically.

"What are you _doing_?" he asked incredulously. Then, "Are you hiding something behind your _back_?"

Bucky tried feverishly to think of something he could say that wouldn't be an out-and-out lie. He didn't want to lie to Tony. He also didn't want to drop the news that Bucky had accidentally adopted five cats on him like this, though.

The decision was taken out of his hand when the cat behind his back meowed plaintively in protest.

Tony squinted harder. "Did whatever you're hiding just _meow_?"

Bucky slumped in on himself, sighing, as he decided that the game was up. There was no reason to delay it any longer, it wasn't like he could just throw himself out of the doors to the stairways instead of having this talk. Even if he did think about it for just a few short moments, he didn't want to scare the cat by doing that.

Instead, he pulled the cat to the front, finally setting him down on the floor when it seemed like he had taken affront to being held behind Bucky's back and was now angry enough at him to try and scratch him for it.

The look Tony aimed at him was inscrutable, and the cat walked away from Bucky with a swishing tail and without a look back.

Oddly, Bucky felt like he'd failed both of them.

Figuring that this was nothing less than he deserved, Bucky watched as the cat slunk over to Tony, butting his head against the closest shin, then meowing in expectation. Bucky was about to tell Tony not to worry about it, that he was going to take the cat down to his level again - if he was allowed to even keep him, that was - when Tony interrupted him without even speaking.

There was a smile hovering around the edges of Tony's lips that he'd never seen before. Bucky was still stuck on that when Tony crouched down and held out his hand to the cat. It wasn't necessary. Apparently, the cat had already decided that he liked Tony because he only nudged his head against the fingers and then promptly fell over onto his side in a demand to get petted.

Tony snorted a laugh and Bucky just about went weak in the knees.

"A cat?" Tony asked finally, still stroking over the cat's soft fur. "That's what you were trying to hide?"

Well, thought Bucky, in for a penny, in for a pound, wasn't that the saying?

"It… may be more than one," he said carefully, though it came out sounding more like a question than anything else.

Tony sighed, but there was a tone of amused exasperation in the sound that filled Bucky with the hope that he hadn't managed to fuck up any kind of friendship that they'd somehow built between them.

Picking up the cat and holding him against his chest - he wasn't protesting being held now, the little menace, though Bucky could understand since he wouldn't protest being snuggled up against Tony either - Tony raised an eyebrow.

"Well, let's see it."

 

* * *

 

In the time that Bucky had spent on the common floor, Steve had somehow managed to clean away all of his art supplies and vanish into thin air. Bucky wished he hadn't done that, because, for some reason, the lack of a human in the space made the four cats already in the room when they stepped off the elevator all the more obvious.

Bucky fidgeted, rubbing at the hem of his sweatshirt with nervous fingers as he looked at Tony from the corner of his eyes.

Tony was worryingly quiet, and Bucky didn't want to look at his expression in fear of what he'd find. Instead, he turned his face back to the living space and made a sweeping motion that encompassed the floor.

"Voilà," he said, awkwardly, then wanted to hit himself over the head for acting like a moron.

And then Bucky couldn't look at Tony's expression anymore if he tried to, because Tony stepped past him, towards where the other cats had ended up in what looked like a gently moving heap of fur.

Hesitatingly, Bucky followed because he was weak and would probably follow Tony everywhere. He watched as the cat was set down - and he really needed to figure out a name for that one soon, because by this point he was the only one Bucky hadn't named, and that felt mean.

"Are you trying to open up your own cat cafe?" Tony finally asked, after a few seconds where he stood over the cats wordlessly and just stared down at them.

Bucky was relieved to hear some amusement in Tony's tone, though there was a distinct quality to it that he couldn't quite parse.

"They help me," he said instead, quietly, like an admission of guilt.

He _saw_ the way Tony softened at that, just from the way his body language changed. When Tony actually turned towards him, there was a smile on his lips that made Bucky's heart beat just that little bit more quickly.

"Well, who am I to stand in the way of recovery."

It took Bucky a second to understand what that meant, but when he did he couldn't help the smile that broke out across his face.

Tony flushed just the tiniest bit and smiled back, as if unable to help himself. Then he glanced at the pile of cats in front of the couch and the smile became a bit smaller, a bit softer, but still utterly beautiful.

"Maybe just let me know if you pick up any more of them, though. They might end up needing their own floor at some point."

 

* * *

 

Bucky ended up calling the last unnamed cat Iron-Kitty.

Tony threw a cat toy at him when Bucky told him, but the beaming smile on his face was more proud than anything else.

There would be no flying armors for cats, however. Bucky made sure to make that very clear.

**Author's Note:**

> Ica also came up with the name Iron Kitty, I can't take credit for that one, either.


End file.
